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Since 1990 (the 27th awards ceremony), the festival and awards was organized and funded by the Motion Picture Development Foundation R.O.C. It set up the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee. The Committee consists of nine to fifteen film scholars and film scholars on the executive board, which includes the Chairman and CEO. Under the Committee, there are five different departments: the administration department for internal administrative affairs, guest hospitality and cross-industry collaboration; the marketing department which is responsible for event planning and promotion, advertising and publications; the project promotion department attending to the execution of the project meetings; the competition department which is in charge of the competition and awards ceremony; and the festival department which is devoted to festival planning, curation of films and invitation of filmmakers, subtitle transition and production and all on-site arrangements during the festival.[2]

The Golden Horse awards ceremony is held after a month-long festival showcasing some of the nominated feature films for the awards. A substantial number of the film winners in the history of the awards have been Hong Kong productions. Submission period are usually around July to August each year and nominations are announced around October with the ceremony held in November or December. Although it has been held once a year; however, it was stopped in 1964 and 1974 and boycotted in the after-ceremony in 2018.[3][4] Winners are selected by a jury of judges and awarded a Golden Horse statuette during the broadcast ceremony.

The awards ceremony was established to boost the industry of making Chinese films, award the good Chinese movies and good moviemakers. It is one of the most honorable awards in the movie industry in Asia. It has been helping the development of movies in Chinese as it provides great support and encouragement to the filmmakers. Moreover, it intends to introduce excellent films to Taiwanese audience from around the world to stimulate exchange of ideas and inspire creativity.[2]

The awards ceremony does not only pay attention to commercial movies but also the artistic ones and documentaries. This move generate some critiques from the society because they believe that it cannot help much with the Taiwanese commercial movie industry. However, the awards ceremony plays a significant role in helping the movie industry and drawing more people’s attention to Chinese-language movies.

For the first fourteen award ceremonies, there were no regular hosts for the ceremony. Hosts began since the fifteenth ceremony; that year's hosts were Ivy Ling Po and Wang Hao. Since then, there are usually two hosts every year, sometimes with a combination of one host from Hong Kong and the other from Taiwan. A significant number of celebrities have hosted the ceremony, such as Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang, Kevin Tsai and Dee Hsu. In 2012 (the 49th awards ceremony), Bowie Tsang and Huang Bo were the hosts and Huang Bo became the first host from Mainland China in the history of the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards.

In 2009, at the 46th awards ceremony, for the first time, two winners were jointly awarded Best Actor: Hong Kong actor Nick Cheung and Chinese actor Huang Bo.

In 2006, at the 43rd awards ceremony, 9-year-old actor Ian Gouw was crowned Best Supporting Actor for his performance in After This Our Exile. He became the youngest winner in the history of the awards.

Taiwanese actress Loretta Yang was named Best Leading Actress in the 21st and 22nd awards ceremony. She is the first actress who won this award for two consecutive years.

Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan took the Best Leading Actor award at the 29th and 30th awards ceremony. He is the first actor who won this award for two consecutive years.

Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong has won the most number of the Best Supporting Actor award. He won this award in the 39th, 40th and 42nd awards ceremony with the movies Xiang Fei, Infernal Affairs and Initial D.

Chinese actress Wang Lai has won the most number of the Best Supporting Actress awards. She won this award in the 3rd, 18th, 25th and 28th awards ceremony with the movies, Ren Zhi Chu, Xiao Hu Lu, People between Two China, and Pushing Hands.

Chinese director and actress Joan Chen is the first person who won awards across two categories, the Best Director (in 1998 for Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl) and the Best Leading Actress. Moreover, she was the first female to win this award.

In 2012, the 49th awards ceremony, Huang Bo became the first host from China.

Also in 2012, Hong Kong actor Chapman To was nominated as the Best Actor for the movie Vulgaria and the Best Supporting Actor for the movie Diva. He is the only person who is nominated in these two categories in the same year.

In 2015, Taiwanese actress Karena Lam became the first person to have won the triple acting awards: Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer.

In 2017, at age 14, Taiwanese actress Vicky Chen became the youngest person to have won the Best Supporting Actress award. She is also the only performer to have been nominated for two acting awards (Best Leading Actress and Best Supporting Actress) for that year.